Indeed, VRML was a thing.. I went into my email archives since I was active in that community working on GopherVR back then. Mark thought the vrml newsgroup should be comp.infosystems.www.vrml. I was convinced that VRML was much more than that and suggested it really really should be comp.infosystems.vrml (a top-level thing..)

The folks at withknown.com are nice, but their focus isn't on end-users these days and I need to get this on SSL, plus would like to use more plugins. [And if all goes well this posts to my social.coop mastodon account!]

Instead of reflecting on the past year think about what's happened for the last 50 years. I finally got around to listening to a 4 part series about computing in 1968. Highly recommended, very very well done and will blow your mind.

Makes you realize that most of what we've been doing has been riffing on groundbreaking things from that era.

Art? Computer Animation? It all started then with some #cybernetics .. (Ep 1)

Sit back a spell and let me tell you a story about the Association of Concerned Employees (ACEs).

Back in 1991 the academic computing teams at the University of Minnesota were set to be laid off and we could "apply" for a job with the new quasi-private sector outfit the "Minnesota Supercomputer Center" (MSC).So none of us liked that. Over 300 of us set up an effort to stop it. The VAX/Unix/MVS/Unix/PC/CDC units stopped fighting for crumbs and joined forces. Letters to the editor were written, politicians where contacted, petitions were circulated.

Mailing lists, and even a BBS were put into use to coordinate.

Even, ahem, a listening device was placed in the Board of Regents office.

We were not in a union but AFSCME supported our demands and upped the pressure.

The efforts worked. The privatization was called off. There were job losses, but we had a voice that we used to make the best of the situation. We had input into how we could reorganize the units and better support the students and faculty.

Intense pressure from many of the 330 civil service employees who operate the University of Minnesota's computer systems apparently has forced school officials to back away from a plan to privatize computer services and place them under the Supercomputer Center.Ettore Infante, vice president for academic affairs, who announced the privatization plan last week met with computer workers Tuesday. He told them that because of concerns regarding his original plan, a reorganization of computer services would occur "without the involvement of the Minnesota Supercomputer Center or a subsidiary of it." Instead, Infante said, an outside consultant will be hired to determine the best way to consolidate and reorganize the university's several computer service centers. About half of the 330 computer specialists would have been laid off at the end of the year under Infante's privatization plan. There will probably be layoffs under any new plan, but how many and when hasn't been determined.

Infante's privatization announcement caught the computer specialists by surprise last week, but they quickly used a computerized electronic mail network to organize their opposition. Their main objection focused on the involvement of the Supercomputer Center. The center, a quasiprivate corporation partially owned by the university, is not subject to public accounting. Gov. Arne Carlson recently cut $8 million in state funding from the center's budget, and many of the computer specialists believed that Infante's move was simply a way to funnel new funds into the center. Infante denied that charge and cited the inefficient, outdated computer systems and networks throughout the university as his reason for consolidation. His move yesterday was welcomed by most employees, but many remained skeptical of his motives. "I was encouraged that they seem to be backing down," said Cheryl Vollhaber, a specialist with academic computing services. The employees demanded to be involved in the planning for consolidating the computer systems, something most agree is badly needed. However, Infante was noncommittal about employee participation. The computer specialists said that they have been calling for a consolidation and reorganization of computer services for a long time, but that the administration has ignored them. They are frustrated, several said, because although they are the computer experts, they are not being consulted. "Our focus will be having an employee representative on the planning board," said Stephen Collins, of the university's micro-computer center.